If you saw someone who was really
really out of shape
and if I were to ask you
how do you think this happened
You would most likely say
they probably didn't get enough exercise and they probably
ate too much junk food
Well the same thing applies to focus
If you're someone who can barely focus for more than five minutes
if you're getting urges to click away from this video already
then you're basically in the same position
But instead of your body that's in an unhealthy state
it's your mind If you want to fix this
all you have to do is take care of your mind
the same way you would take care of your body
In order to get in shape
there are essentially only two things that you have to do
The first is to get regular exercise for your mind
Just like how when you go to the gym
you have to lift heavy weights to increase your physical strength
When you want to improve your mental strength
you must force yourself
to do something that requires a lot of focus and mental energy
such as reading a book
studying working writing or even practicing a skill
It varies from person to person
But the rule of thumb is that any
task that you are currently having issues
focusing on is a task that you can train with
Once you've decided which task to train with
you need to figure out your current strength level for this task
Let's say you decide to train by reading a book
Your next step is to set a timer and see how long
you can read before you start getting extreme urges
to check your phone or to do something else Once
that happens stop the timer and make note of that time
This is your current focus strength level
Let me know where you currently stand in the comments down below
I am a bit curious
Now that you know where your current level is at
you need to start working out your mind on a regular basis
You need to set aside a block of time every day
just for this focus training
just like how you would set aside a block of time
just to work out at the gym
Your job is to try to do five sets of this task
every day and try to do it for slightly longer
than your current strength level
So if you're currently getting urges at five minutes when reading
then just aim to read for five and a half minutes
or even six minutes
Once you do you can take a little break
and play on your phone for like one or two minutes
Just like how you would rest a bit between
doing sets in a gym
and then you would go back to reading for the next set
and you repeat the process over and over at least five times
Do this every day and at the end of the week
test your focus strength level
Again test to see how long you can read before
getting strong urges to do something else
You should see a gradual increase in this number over time
If you are consistent with your workouts
you should also change the exercises from time to time
Instead of reading you can choose to focus on studying or writing
Or if you really want to strengthen those focus muscles
you can try and solve some problems
Which is why today's episode was
brought to you with the help of the guys at Brilliant
Brilliant offers a wide range of content
from interactive courses on mathematical fundamentals
to scientific thinking to programming and even machine learning
They teach by putting a focus on problem solving
where you solve fun and interactive problems by yourself
to drill in the lessons
Personally I've been learning by using the logic section of their platform
I have a strong belief that one should hone their logic skills
as it makes it easier to make the right choices in life
and to see the truth that exists in the world
Brilliant's logic course helps you develop the critical skills necessary
to discern the truth
If you are looking for a great way to strength train
your focus and also to improve your skills
then I highly suggest you go to wwwbrilliantorg
ImprovementPill to sign up for a free trial
The first 200 people to sign up will get 20 off
the annual premium subscription
Now back to the topic at hand
The best way to train your focus
muscles is by building a habit that automatically does it for you
For example I don't need to set aside time
every day to go to the mental gym because I'm writing
every day for roughly 3 hours
I'll usually write for 30 minutes
or so and then take a break and then go back
to writing So basically
I am training and maintaining the health of my focus muscles
because of this habit
This is something that you should consider
doing when you get your focus strength level
to at least ten minutes
because at that point you can start getting work done
The second thing you have to do to improve your focus
is to fix your diet
See we consume food with our bodies
but we consume content with our minds
Delicious high calorie extra sweet foods
are the junk foods of the physical world
which means that short
extra stimulating fun to watch pieces of content
are the junk foods of the mental world
It's fine to enjoy it every once in a while
you could even do it every day
But if it's the only thing that you consume
then your attention span will shrink to mere seconds
The primary source of this junk food is social media
A study found that on average
people only spend about 10 seconds on each post on Instagram
Other social media platforms like Twitter
Facebook TikTok and even Reddit probably fare the same
It's all content that we spend mere seconds on
Even longer form content like videos on YouTube fall victim to this
Although the problem here is stimulation
many of the videos
that go viral have tons of edits and sound effects
They cut to a new scene every 5 seconds
These are videos that we watch because of the stimulation it brings
The endless novelty releases a ton of dopamine in our brain
causing us to want to watch more
all while decreasing our ability to focus on less stimulating things
In general what you want to do is consume content
that is long formed with little stimulation
A great example of this
are educational videos like Ted Talks and Interviews
These are pieces of content that are slow paced and focus
on only a few topics throughout their entirety
which makes them a good addition to your mental diet
Other variations of content
such as audiobooks blog posts
podcasts and even documentaries
are healthy as well
What you want to do is
make sure that you are consuming some content
in these forms on a daily basis
and slowly try to aim for it to be at least half
of what you consume over time
Again it's totally fine to use social media on a daily basis
but you need to balance it with some healthier content consumption
Another important thing to add is when you consume content
you have to try your best not to multitask
because checking social media on your phone
while watching a Ted Talk is equivalent to eating a cake
while eating a salad
It's not going to help at all
And when you consume content
you should try your best to finish whatever you start
Make a habit of reading the entire article
of watching the entire video
of finishing the entire chapter
This will allow you to train those focus muscles even outside
of the mental gym
And that's it The solution to improving your focus
depends on how much you train your focus
muscles and also what sort of content
you consume on a daily basis
There really isn't a shortcut
just like how there isn't a shortcut with losing weight
It's an ongoing battle and a life style change
that you have to make
I hope this video was helpful And besides that guys stay tuned